ETF Flows: February Report Card

On the whole, ETF investors went domestic in February and they stuck to the broad index ETFs. Outflows were concentrated in commodities and international ETFs, although smaller and more speculative currency and commodity-related funds did attract inflows.

Investors are moving cash back into the stock market, but they don't know where to put it yet. Plain vanilla index funds saw some of the largest net inflows in February. Of the top 10 ETF inflows, four were broad domestic indexes: SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ), iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) and iShares S&P 500 (IVV).

Two of the top 10 were bond funds: iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasuries (SHY) and iShares Barclays TIPS (TIP). There's still widespread concern about inflation, as TIPS and short-term bonds are two ways to defend against rising interest rates.

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Although Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets (VWO) had the second-largest inflows last month, it is because the fund continues to attract investors from iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM) due to superior performance and lower fees. VWO saw $1.149 billion in net inflows, while EEM saw $2.444 billion in net outflows, the largest outflows of any ETF in February. Overall, investors were net sellers of emerging markets.

The other three-largest inflows went to ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 (SDS), Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI) and Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP).

The flows into SDS are remarkable in that this fund saw assets increase about 17% in February, to a hefty $3.488 billion. That's a large sum for a leveraged ETF; SDS is now almost twice the size of the next largest leveraged equity ETF, the ProShares Ultra Financials (UYG). Both XLI and XLP have been outperforming in 2010 and investors may be looking for these trends to continue.

Besides the huge outflows from EEM, investors also exited iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) and iShares Latin America 40 (ILF). They also sold SPDR Barclays International Treasury (BWX) and Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX). All of these ETFs are losing their attractiveness due to a higher U.S. dollar, which posed a strong headwind on these sectors.

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